Why joblessness and poverty still bite

In the past decade, there has been a reduction in poverty levels but unemployment has steadily increased. Saturday Monitor’s Yasiin Mugerwa explores the reasons for the trend and ways of getting out of this quagmire. Patience Nakintu graduated from Makerere University in 2005, and never imagined finding a job would be this difficult. With a first class degree in Social Work and Social Administration, she hoped that many NGOs would be jumping at the opportunity of having her on board. But five years down the road, Ms Nakintu is still sending out job applications, without success. This is the story of a big percentage of Uganda’s population.

As the world celebrates Labour Day today, latest government figures on the state of unemployment and poverty in the country indicate that at least 8.4 million Ugandans are stuck in abject poverty and many remain unemployed. Statistics from the labour department show that out of the 400,000 students who graduate from various tertiary institutions across the country each year, only 8,000 have a chance of being gainfully employed.

This means that for every one job that is available there are at least 50 qualified people laboring to get it. Labour market experts say that given the wide spread corruption in the country, even the most qualified for the available jobs don’t get them because the labour market is highly “patronised”.

Whereas the government has made some progress in reducing poverty levels from 56 per cent in 1992/03 to 31 per cent in 2005/06, the high levels of unemployment and corruption are compounding government’s efforts to put money in peoples’ pockets. “Unemployment is still high (in the country) affecting mainly the women, youth and the disabled, “a budget report by the Ministry of Gender on social development issues, reveals.

Helpless ministry?
“The combined unemployment and under employment rate in the country account to 14 per cent (and this is a serious challenge), ” the document which was presented to Parliament states. Dr Emmanuel Otaala, the minister in charge of labour said there was nothing his ministry could do about the unemployment levels. “Creating jobs is a multi-sectoral responsibility. There is nothing my department can do, unemployment is high but I don’t create jobs,” he said.

The minister attributed the high unemployment levels to the country’s chaotic past. About 31 per cent of the population lives on less than a dollar a day. However, Pader Woman MP Judith Akello Franka says unless government invests in capital developments to create jobs across the country, the problem of unemployment and high levels of poverty especially in rural areas will remain a big challenge for the country. “With more than 85 per cent of the population living in rural areas, poverty will remain entrenched in villages. Unless the government invests in job creation, poverty will not go away and crime will surge,” Ms Akello warned.

According to a June 2007 report by the Finance Ministry entitled “Re-orienting Government Expenditure Towards Prosperity- for –All” , northern Uganda, where conflict prevailed for over 20 years is still the poorest part of the country.

A string of government anti-poverty interventions such as Entantikwa, Prosperity- for- All, National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) and Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP), are yet to yield positive results largely due to corruption.

PEAP was a broad policy framework paper first formulated in 1995 to eliminate poverty in Uganda, and revised in 2000 with extensive public consultations involving civil society organizations. The project closed, 10 years later, with little or no positive results. PEAP has now been replaced with National Development Plan (NDP), a five year plan to transform Uganda from a poor country to a modern one in the next 30 years.

However, some members of Parliament argue that without serious reforms to tackle corruption in government systems, the new NDP could fail. “The government is stuck because those who are rich become richer by the day while others become poorer and unemployment is worsening. In fact, with poverty and unemployment high, I don’t see why we even need to celebrate the Labour Day,” Mr Livingstone Okello (FDC, Aswa) said.

Expert opinion
Dr Augustus Nuwagaba, a development expert notes; "Uganda's poverty eradication programmes are usually implemented in a poor way and during time of electioneering. In the end, people perceive the (funds they receive) under the schemes as a reward for their votes, thus leading to misuse of the funds and the reluctance to pay back".

While President Yoweri Museveni wants Ugandans to produce more children to create a bigger market, development experts say, a population of about 31 million (currently) and growing at a rate of about 3.2 per cent a year- is upsetting the government’s efforts to tackle poverty, unemployment.

But President Museven is of the view that Uganda’s exploding population is the country’s “most important asset” that should be used for increased productivity in order to achieve economic transformation. Lubaga South MP Susan Nampijja argues that the President’s stand on a big population is misplaced because there are many unskilled Ugandans and very few jobs for those with skills.

“A population that cannot work is not productive and therefore has no purchasing power”.
Explaining why millions of Ugandans are stuck in poverty, the Shadow Finance Minister, Oduman Okello (FDC, Bukedea) said: “Corruption is eating away government efforts to fight poverty and increasingly, the deficiencies in fighting this monster are trickling down to the population in an agonizing manner.”

“We are moving in a vicious circle and unless, the President stops offering lip-service to the fight against corruption, more Ugandans especially the youth will join the chronically poor bracket and more will continue to look for jobs without any success leading to civil strife in the country.”

Planning
The National Organisation of Trade Unions (NOTU) Chairman Mr Usher Wilson Owere said; “Our leaders have lost sense of direction; they have failed to implement the good plans available to create jobs and fight poverty in the country.” Mr Owere advised that there should be an overhaul of the current education system, improvements in agricultural productivity, improving access to clean water, shelter and basic healthcare.

According to NOTU, the government failure to elevate the labour department into a fully fledged ministry as the case with other East African countries, has entrenched poverty and unemployment in the country due to poor planning in the sector. “Labour is just a department in the Ministry of Gender and can’t do planning when it’s financially starved. There is a need to for government to take labour issues seriously in order to create employment--the engine for development,” Mr Owere said. “Government needs to revive the vocational institutions where youths can get skills and overhaul the national education curriculum to stop universities from producing job seekers and emphasize job creation.”

The lawmakers across the political divide have argued that while poverty is blamed on corruption, some degree programmes offered in public universities have little or no relevance to the employment or job market. However, to triumph over the biting unemployment, labour department says in line with the National Development Plan, the focus in the 2010/11 Budget, expected to be read in two months time, will be put on externalization of labour, youth employment programmes, entrepreneurship skill development ,technical and vocational training to emphasize job creation.

Bugisu Corporative Union (BCU), Chairman, Mr Nandala Mafabi (Budadiri West) said that “any efforts to generate employment in the country should, as a first step, focus on providing incentives to farmers, fighting corruption, removing obstacles to job creation and accessibility in the urban areas and among the youth and women.”

“The agriculture sector employs majority of the people but the government has not paid attention to this fact. This is the reason why in rural areas there is a lot of poverty and something must be done urgently to help our people boost productivity,” he added.
Amuru Woman MP, Ms Aciro Concy, a development expert, says factors responsible for the acute poverty in Uganda are gender division and lack of proper labour utilization specifically in the agricultural sector. “The available data reveals that about 70 per cent of agricultural labour forces are responsible for the production and most of the labour forces are women. At least 60 per cent of Ugandans are poor and 31 per cent are very poor. Women in Uganda are the poorest and if we are to make any progress, the government should do something in this area.”

But according to Chronic Poverty Research Centre, an international partnership of universities working to reduced poverty especially in developing countries, “with around 20 per cent of the population not benefiting from the country’s current development path, it is doubtful that the long-term poverty reduction goals can be reached, if policy changes and (in some cases) innovations are not introduced.”

Unemployment at a glance

* There are at least 10.9 million employed Ugandans.
* About 400, 000 job seekers from various universities across the country join the labour market every year.
* The country creates only 18,000 new jobs annually.
* Only 545, 000 of Ugandans (5% of total labour force) hold permanent jobs.
* At least 8.4 million Uganda are below the poverty line.
* The World Bank warns that an increase in joblessness and high levels of poverty in the country could trigger an explosion in crime and civil unrest.
* The government has refused to set a new minimum wage for workers, arguing that it will scare away potential investors.
* Uganda Investment Authority says 70,000 new jobs will be created from the projects registered last year.
* The 2010/11 budget Framework Paper shows that only Shs1.9 billion has been provided for job creation.
* Due to increased unemployment in the country, many Ugandans are increasingly ”escaping” the country to look for jobs in neghbouring countries and in developed countries in what commonly known as ”Kyeyo.”
* To cut on the widespread unemployment in the country, the government is focusing on externalization of labour and skills development.

Poverty situation in the country

* Uganda is a rural economy with only 12 per cent of the population living in towns and 88 per cent living in villages where poverty bites the most.
* 8.4 million people are living on less than a dollar a day.
* Women are considered to be chronically poor.
* Self employment in agriculture is a main source of livelihood. The sector employs more than 85 per cent of the population.
* In all the four regions (Central, Eastern, Western and Northern) the rural poverty rate is higher than the urban poverty rate. In fact, whereas the rural poverty rate ranges widely from 19.3 per cent to almost 65 percent, the urban poverty rates are all less than 25 per cent except for the North.

* Northern Uganda has the highest poverty levels 23.5 per cent and the lowest was found in western region 4.52 per cent).